Provenance: Private Collection, Manila

ABOUT THE WORK

          In Danilo Dalena’s crowd paintings, the people are not mere  numerical groupings of figures.  For one, they are highly  cohesive, seemingly possessed by a common force in the contagion of pressing bodies.  More important, they are marked by a strong and undeniable physicality.  The figures themselves, banal yet tense, altogether convey that a haphazardly significant moment is about to happen.
          In these paintings which he started to do during the bleak Martial law years, the betting hall and the swarming of masses in search of luck became a metaphor for the human condition, particularly for Philippine society in crisis.
          Even in depicting a period of urban decline and corruption, Dalena’s art manages to retain its straightforwardness.
          His satire, while caustic and cutting, is not all dark and heavy.  It always bears a note of humor, like a left-handed compliment.  And this is where he is part of what he satirizes; this is where  Dalena is soul brother to the shadowy night denizens and to the down and out habit of betting halls and beer joints.